--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com X-Sender: believer@telepath.com Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 07:47:55 -0500 To: believer@telepath.com From: believer@telepath.com Subject: IP: Going Cashless: Bank ends ECash trial period Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: ignition-point-request@majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: first-class Source: ComputerWorld http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9809174ecash (Online News, 09/17/98 12:16 PM) Bank ends electronic cash trial By Mary Lisbeth D'Amico The sole U.S. bank to show interest in online payment via electronic cash this week abruptly ended its three-year trial of DigiCash, Inc.'s ECash software. Citing a new strategy and market conditions, St. Louis-based Mercantile Bank this week ended a trial that allowed customers to make purchases over the Internet with electronic coins, Mercantile spokeswoman Beth Fagen confirmed. The trial used ECash, an electronic cash software program created by Palo Alto, Calif.-based DigiCash. The bank was the sole U.S. client for DigiCash, which hopes to have another major U.S. trial in place by year's end, according to William Donahoo, DigiCash's vice president of business development. The trial brought together 5,000 customers with 300 Internet merchants. Customers gave the bank their credit-card information only once, then created electronic "coins" at the bank, allowing them to make small purchases -- or micropayments -- of goods over the Internet without having to enter a credit-card number each time. The buyer also remains anonymous to the merchant because the coins don't identify the customer. Mercantile inherited the ECash project when it purchased Mark Twain Bank in 1997, Fagen said. After reviewing its strategy, the bank decided to call a halt to the trial after it became apparent that few of the project's participants were Mercantile's core customers in the six Midwestern states where it operates, she explained. Fagen also cited the changing climate in the U.S. for Internet payments. When the trial was started in 1995, she said, "people were more fearful of using credit cards to pay for things over the Internet. Now that seems to have disappeared." Although Mark Twain was the first bank worldwide to try out ECash, its core business never was quite a match for the product, according to Donahoo. "But we are still bullish about our prospects for this market," Donahoo said, pointing out that automated teller machines took nearly 20 years to gain favor with consumers. DigiCash will concentrate on finding the right type of merchants for its U.S.-based projects, he said. In Europe, DigiCash has ECash projects in progress at Credit Suisse, the Bank of Austria and Deutsche Bank. Copyright © 1998 Computerworld, Inc. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer ********************************************** --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'